The Religious Beliefs of America's Founders

The Religious Beliefs of America's Founders

Reason, Revelation, and Revolution

Gregg L. Frazer

Were America's Founders Christians or deists? Conservatives and secularists have taken each position respectively, mustering evidence to insist just how tall the wall separating church and state should be. Now Gregg Frazer puts their arguments to rest in the first comprehensive analysis of the Founders' beliefs as they themselves expressed them—showing that today's political right and left are both wrong.

Going beyond church attendance or public pronouncements made for political ends, Frazer scrutinizes the Founders' candid declarations regarding religion found in their private writings. Distilling decades of research, he contends that these men were neither Christian nor deist but rather adherents of a system he labels "theistic rationalism," a hybrid belief system that combined elements of natural religion, Protestantism, and reason—with reason the decisive element.

“Through thorough research and marked erudition, Frazer illuminates a maelstrom of differing theological perspectives among a group of Americans that we often refer to glibly as Christian or Deist. Frazer’s book expands our notions of what these people believed about God, scripture, the afterlife, and other Christian dogmas, and contributes to the understanding that America's religious history has always been deeply and fundamentally plural. It is true that short-hand terms such as Christian, Deist, theistic rationalist are necessary at times, but for those who wish to think through America's religious history in more intricate and nuanced terms, this compelling book provides just such an opportunity. Some readers may come away from this book with a new set of categories. but all readers should benefit from a deepened understanding that the founders, however we label them, were not themselves limited in their thinking by the appellations we seek to bestow upon them.”

—Law and Politics Book Review

“Sophisticated probing bypasses the simplistic contemporary polarization of secular vs. Christian just as it claims the founders did.”

—American History Magazine

“A consistently interesting study. . . . Despite some reservations, I would say Frazer has developed a compelling explanation for how and why the Founding generation approached church-state relations in the way they did.”

—Voice of Reason: The Journal of Americans for Religious Liberty

“Frazer argues that the key founders valued religion not for any truths delivered by divine revelation or as a means to salvation but because of its ‘laudable effects,’ which included providing a foundation for public morality. In summary, Frazer has skillfully marshaled a considerable amount of evidence in support of his new category of revolutionary-era religious belief and added more fuel to an already intense discourse. Highly recommended.”

—Choice

“Sophisticated, well-documented, and forcefully argued. Extreme partisans who champion ‘Christian America’ or complete secularism will not like this book, but all other readers should come away much better informed about the past and also much better situated to adjudicate religious-political debates today.”

—Mark Noll, author of God and Race in American Politics: A Short History

“Slices through prevailing understandings of the founders’ religious beliefs by showing that they are neither what contemporary secularists nor what contemporary Christians often wish they were.”

—Russell Muirhead, author of Just Work

“Lucidly written and suffused with great honesty.”

—Thomas L. Pangle, author of Political Philosophy and the God of Abraham

Frazer explains how this theological middle ground developed, what its core beliefs were, and how they were reflected in the thought of eight Founders: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington. He argues convincingly that Congregationalist Adams is the clearest example of theistic rationalism; that presumed deists Jefferson and Franklin are less secular than supposed; and that even the famously taciturn Washington adheres to this theology. He also shows that the Founders held genuinely religious beliefs that aligned with morality, republican government, natural rights, science, and progress.

Frazer's careful explication helps readers better understand the case for revolutionary recruitment, the religious references in the Declaration of Independence, and the religious elements-and lack thereof-in the Constitution. He also reveals how influential clergymen, backing their theology of theistic rationalism with reinterpreted Scripture, preached and published liberal democratic theory to justify rebellion.

Deftly blending history, religion, and political thought, Frazer succeeds in showing that the American experiment was neither a wholly secular venture nor an attempt to create a Christian nation founded on biblical principles. By showcasing the actual approach taken by these key Founders, he suggests a viable solution to the twenty-first-century standoff over the relationship between church and state—and challenges partisans on both sides to articulate their visions for America on their own merits without holding the Founders hostage to positions they never held.

About the Author

Gregg L. Frazer is professor of history and political studies at The Master's College in Santa Clarita, California. His writing has appeared in the volumes The Forgotten Founders on Religion and Public Life and Faith and the Founders of the American Republic.